When Martin Truex Jr. claimed his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the 2018 season with his victory of the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California on March 18, he proclaimed that the camouflage cap he received from a Toyota Racing Development visit the previous week his good luck charm.
“I was out at TRD this week and they gave me this hat,” Truex said in victory lane at Auto Club Speedway. “It must be good luck. Thank you guys for great engines.”
It was understandable Truex saw the new cap as a good-luck charm. After all, after receiving it, he headed to ACS where he was fastest in practice, claimed his second-straight pole starting position and won both stages in the process of leading a race-high 125 laps en route to his first 2018 win.
There was cause for concern, though, after the Fontana race. The driver lost his new lucky cap.
“Last weekend in victory lane, I lost it,” Truex said during an interview with Claire B. Lang on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during the Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway race weekend that culminated in Monday’s delayed running of the STP 500.
Truex said he put the cap in his car for safe-keeping as he celebrated his Auto Club 400 win in victory lane. But when he went to retrieve the cap a few minutes later, it was gone. Truex told Lang, he thought someone stole his cap.
No fear, though. Truex was reunited with his lucky cap during the week between the Fontana and Martinsville races. He received a text from someone with TRD, letting him know that the cap wasn’t missing. The individual with TRD wrapped it in his shirt for safe-keeping. The cap was shipped via FedEx back to Truex, so the driver was reunited with his good luck charm in time for Martinsville.
After the separation between cap and driver, was the cap still lucky at Martinsville? Pretty much so, since the weather-forced cancellation on qualifying put Truex on the pole for the third-consecutive week, and he finished solidly inside the top five with a fourth place finish.